LESSON 15 - HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION

Hello. Thank you for joining me on my YouTube channel. My name is Christiana Sagie. On this channel, I will be teaching about international law. And these teachings will be in the form of short weekly lecture series. Over time, I will be surfacing varied concepts of international law. When and where applicable, these concepts will be analyzed and brought to you as it relates to current trends in international law as theorized. At the end of this lecture, you will find the transcript of the lecture in the link below. Also, for current trend and analysis in international law, you can subscribe to my blog. All the details you will find in the comments section below. For the 15th lecture in this lecture series, we'll be exploring the concept of humanitarian intervention. To do this, we'll be addressing three subheadings. One, the mean of humanitarian intervention. Two, paradoxes of humanitarian intervention. And we will also be exploring examples of humanitarian intervention. So first off, what is humanitarian intervention? Humanitarian intervention encompasses any and all activities undertaken by states, a coalition of states, and or international organizations aimed at alleviating egregious human rights violations of persons within a sovereign state's borders. Humanitarian intervention can include the use of military force or non-military force. But whichever the case, because humanitarian intervention impedes a state's territorial sovereignty, it has to meet certain thresholds whenever it is set to occur. Thus, the legality of any humanitarian intervention has to meet the following conditions. One, the existence of convincing evidence, generally accepted by the international community as a whole, of extreme humanitarian distress on a large scale requiring immediate and urgent relief. Two, it must be objectively clear that there is no practicable alternative to the use of force if lives are to be saved. And thirdly, that the proposed use of force must be necessary and proportionate to the aim of relief of humanitarian need and must be strictly limited in time and scope to this aim. That is, the minimum necessary to achieve the end and for no other purpose. So you can find these conditions enumerated in the policy paper by the UK government stating its legal position on the chemical weapon used by the Syrian regime. I have created a hyperlink to this document in the transcript. It is pertinent to highlight one fundamental argument linked with the issue of humanitarian intervention. And that is whether such an intervention can occur or should occur outside the ambit of the Security Council's authorization. That is, generally through Security Council resolutions. Jurisprudence on this question highlights several arguments for and against. Now, at the moment that is beyond the scope of this lecture. We will take a deeper dive into this question in a subsequent video. To the next subhead, paradoxes of humanitarian intervention. We established in lesson nine on non-intervention that as a rule of term in international law, sovereign states have a right to non-interference into their domestic affairs. But one thing is sure, humanitarian intervention entails interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. So how do we reconcile these seemingly conflicting rules of international law? Also, when we look at article two, sub four of the UN Charter, which states that all members shall refrain in their international relations from the trust or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any states or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations. Another paradox surfaces. As humanitarian intervention is often carried out through the use of force. Again, how can this be reconciled within the framework of humanitarian intervention and international law generally? To answer these questions, it is important, it's essential to look to state practice and the progressive nature of international law. As Professor Greenwood points out, the question of state practice pertaining to humanitarian intervention has evolved in the last decade. It would appear that non-permissive intervention would run afoul of article two, four of the UN Charter. On the contrary, there is an indication that customary international law supports limited exception to the prohibition on the use of force in situations of extreme humanitarian crisis or to avert humanitarian catastrophe. So humanitarian intervention by state, a coalition of states or international organization or organizations would undoubtedly interfere in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state. And in many cases may even involve the use of force. What distinguishes such intervention and makes it permissive is its humanitarian objectives. So to the next subhead, examples of humanitarian intervention. Humanitarian interventions by international organizations include the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda, UNAMI in 1994, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, UNTAET in 1999. Humanitarian interventions by coalition of states include NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999, the military intervention in Libya on their Security Council Resolution 1973 in 2011, and examples of humanitarian intervention by states include Vietnam's intervention in Cambodia in 1979, the US intervention in Panama in 1989, and India's intervention in East Pakistan now known as Bangladesh. So I have gone ahead in the transcript to include a link to the Security Council Resolution 1973 and the homepage of UNAMI and UNTAET. That way you can take a look and see specifically what these interventions entailed. To recap, we have answered three questions aimed at providing a broad understanding of the concept of humanitarian intervention. And as a way of bringing our lesson today to a conclusion, it is essential to note that the legality, scope, means, and legitimacy of humanitarian intervention continue to be a fiercely debated issue in international law. Remember to engage on here in the comment section on Facebook and Twitter, and let us know the content you'd like to see. So I wanna say thank you so very much for joining in and remember to like, share, subscribe, leave your comments in the comment section below and hit the notification bell so that you're notified when there's a new video. Thank you.